By: Ed Krizek

Music of Life

There is beauty in silence.
Nature still has something
to teach us. The birds
sing along with the car engines
and motorcycles. Muffled hallway
conversations. Doors opening
and closing. Dogs barking.
The music of life
produces a concerto
while I lie peacefully, waiting.

The lights on our little Christmas tree
shine like daytime stars.
The tree stands silent
while I search for joy in its branches.
A group of stuffed animals
gather round the tree’s base
guarding it from naysayers.

Suffering can be difficult to accept.
While many do not care
to speak of it, all the world
experiences it. A mixture of joy
and sadness radiates from within
while the music continues.

###

Recipe for Forgetting

Take one love affair.
Bake at high heat
for five years.
Remove from the warmth
and drop tears
over its surface.
Put in a smokey room
for twenty years.
Slice away a memory.
Taste the absence
of feeling as you chew on it.
Serve with a side dish
of shallow trysts.

Enjoy the wistful feeling
afterward with a glass
of single malt.

###

Pandemic

Today I took myself out
of quarantine. The sun
was welcoming,
the temperature mild,
sky blue and almost cloudless.

We are walking
on charnel ground,
trying to avoid death
by embracing life,
from six feet away,

Reality is the present
as the virus multiplies.
I don’t consider a virus
to be a sentient being—
would happily kill them all.

I am not afraid of death,
just not ready, yet.
Maybe tomorrow, …
please?